In a recent issue of this Journal a trio of Southwestern archaeologists proposed a new scheme of ceramic taxonomy that might, if widely followed, restore the possibility of intercommunication between specialists in North American archaeology (Wheat, Gifford, and Wasley 1958). I became interested in this scheme some time before its publication as a possible solution to certain typological difficulties in the Lower Mississippi Valley. One of the authors, James Gifford, encouraged my efforts to apply it to pottery so different from that for which it was devised, and, as an unforeseen result of numerous consultations with him, and with Stephen Williams, Gordon R. Willey, and Watson Smith, the present paper emerged.

One of the most stimulating problems in present day Southwestern archaeology is that of relationships to the south — to the high cultures of Mexico. Evidence of such relationships is strongest in the Hohokam remains of southern Arizona. The broad outlines of Hohokam development have been fairly well established. The same is true for the cultures of central Mexico. The next step in solving the problem of Mexican-Southwest relationships would appear to be that of obtaining an understanding of culture history in the area between central Mexico and southern Arizona.

In a previous paper (Meighan and others 1958), we considered techniques whereby the archaeologist can derive conclusions concerning prehistoric man's relationship to his environment. We limited our study to hunting and gathering societies since we felt that these were most directly and intimately affected by environment. In the present discussion, we have attempted to expand our study to include archaeological communities marked by the presence of agriculture, domestic animals, or both. Our inquiry can be phrased thus: what physical remains associated with agricultural communities can be used as evidence for ecological inferences? The answers to this question are neither as numerous nor as obvious as we first supposed, yet such answers are basic to an understanding of culture history.

Fine orange pottery is one of the most distinctive wares in Mesoamerica. In an area where pottery generally is tempered it has no temper; it stands apart in having an especially homogeneous, fine-textured orange paste. Several types are recognized, including, in chronological order, Z, Y, X, V, U, and the problematical Isla de Sacrificios material. It is possible that there are other fine oranges but there is not now sufficient evidence to establish additional types. The letters used to identify the varieties are temporary designations which should be replaced with appropriate names when more complete data have been amassed.

This is a preliminary report on a stratified site in the Vantage region of the Columbia Plateau (Fig. 1). The earliest occupation dates from 10,000 years or more ago, and the sequence terminates with historic aboriginal habitations. The geology has been treated elsewhere (Swanson 1956), and the Early Man remains are being prepared for publication. This report concerns the last inhabitants of the site, who lived at various times in a small village on the surface of the floodplain terrace (Fig. 2).

The use of sascab as a substitute for sand in the preparation of ancient (and modern) mortars and plasters in Yucatán has been noted by many writers including Landa (Tozzer 1941: 171, 176), Morris, Chariot, and Morris (1931, Vol. 1: 220-4), E. H. Thompson (1887), and Villa R. (1934). R. H. Thompson (1958) details the use of sascab as temper for making pottery. Sascab is described by Villa R. (1934) as a soft limestone conglomerate; it has also been spoken of as an unconsolidated limestone. Sascab is a white to reddish, compacted powder, frequently containing rounded boulders or stones, and found in pockets in the limestone of Yucatán and possibly other areas with a similar geography.

For some time it has been almost tacitly accepted that most or all of the pre-Columbian copper artifacts found in the eastern United States were manufactured of native copper recovered from the glacial drifts of the western Great Lakes region (Martin, Quimby, and Collier 1947: 40–2). This assumption can be attributed to a number of factors: (1) the abundance of copper artifacts in the Old Copper and Middle Woodland cultures which center in or are immediately adjacent to this region; (2) the quantity and availability of the copper; (3) the notion that other deposits were not accessible to pre-Columbian users, or were at least not numerous; and finally, (4) all the copper artifacts so far analysed show compositional similarities to the Great Lakes copper.

Shortly after an article describing a Peruvian shirt with a horizontal neck slot was published (Gayton 1955), a specimen with a similar aperture was unearthed at La Capilla cemetery on the Hacienda Marques. This specimen is sufficiently different from the other to warrant a brief report. The archaeological data are provided by Stumer, the textile data by Gayton.

La Capilla cemetery is on the Hacienda Marques at the mouth of the Chillón River, some 12 km. north of Lima. La Capilla lies at the extreme northwest corner of the irrigable lands of the Chillón and is the most extensive of the cemetery sites which dot the Hacienda Marques.

An elaborately carved fragment of metamorphosed schist was sent to me not long ago. I was told that it was plowed up in a field near Fosters, Alabama, which is approximately 7 miles north of Moundville State Park and thus well within the sphere of influence of that cultural center. The specimen is owned by James Willard Dorroh of Buhl, Alabama.

The object constitutes the major portion of a very beautifully carved monolithic ceremonial ax (Fig. 1) superficially resembling one in the Peabody Museum at Yale University (Cat. No. 3701) which has been described by Saville (1916: 5) and MacCurdy (1916: 301).

As a footnote to Ralph Beals’ most interesting discussion of Father Acosta's views on the peopling of the New World in the October 1957 issue of American Antiquity (Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 182–3), one might note the claim of Thomas Gage, author of the English-American, a new survey of the West Indies, to be the first to develop thoroughly — certainly in English — the “Men out of Asia” via Bering Strait thesis.

A fairly large fragmentary pottery (Fig. 1) bell was “rediscovered” some months ago while several of us were systematizing archaeological materials stored in the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe. Although the piece was probably excavated in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s, it has never been reported. The bell was included with Jemez area archaeological materials, studied and reported by the late Paul Reiter (1938: 155–7, PI. XXII b, c). Possibly Reiter did not consider this part of a bell, or it may have been overlooked. In any event, because such items are rare, this object should not pass unnoticed.

It was shown by Bowie and Davidson (1955) that measurement of the beta radioactivity of fossil bones in a mixed assemblage is a useful means of determining their relative ages. Buried bones and teeth adsorb uranium from percolating ground water, so that with the passage of time there is an increase in their radioactivity. There can be no confusion with the decreasing radioactivity of the carbon-14 of residual collagen in fossil bones, for this is far too feeble to be measured by the technique employed here. When fresh bone is tested by the present method no radioactivity can be detected. The uranium content of a fossil bone depends not only on the length of time that it has been buried, but also on the permeability of the matrix, on the hydrological conditions at the site, and on the uranium content of the water coming into contact with the specimen.

In 1937 John M. Goggin found a series of blow-outs in the San Jose river valley, western New Mexico, which produced serrated projectile points reminiscent of Pinto Basin material. The following year Joseph H. Toulouse, Jr., identified 3 distinct cultural horizons, each with an associated sand stratum (Bryan and Toulouse 1943). The most recent stratum, made up of loose drifting surface sand, contained Pueblo and recent cultural debris. Beneath this was a layer of consolidated buff to white colored sand identified as late dune. In this stratum were , found diagnostic milling stones and the distinctive small, serrated Lobo point. Under this buff sand lay a compact layer of red sand, old dune, with similar milling stones but with a larger serrated point type today known as the San Jose.

The purpose of a review of a scientific monograph is twofold: 1) to give a brief summary of the contents, organization, methodology, and main conclusions of the work; and 2) to comment critically on its contribution in the light of the author's aims and techniques. Unfortunately, the recent review by Stig Rydén (1958, American Antiquity, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 88-9) of Heyerdahl and Skjölsvold, Archaeological Evidence of Pre-Spanish Visits to the Galápagos Islands does not serve either of these purposes.

It has been thought that one of the most easily recognized types of flint used in the manufacture of stone tools in the Southern Plains is Amarillo or Alibates flint (Kidder 1932: 31, 44; Krieger 1946: 50, 62; Skinner 1956: 13). This flint has been widely recognized in Texas, central and western Oklahoma, southern Kansas, eastern Colorado and western New Mexico (Watson 1950: 32; Bell and Baerreis 1951: 84; Suhm and Krieger 1954: 71). The material has been dated as early as Folsom and as late as protohistoric (Roberts 1942: 18; Schmidt and Toldan 1953: 173; Baker, Campbell, and Evans 1957: 2).

David Baerreis’ review of The Effigy Mound Culture of Wisconsin, by Chandler Rowe (American Antiquity, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 320–1), includes certain criticisms of methods and procedures underlying the author’s treat’ ment of his subject that raise important questions as to the general status of archaeological concept and methodology.

For example, commenting on Rowe’s rejection of the early guess that effigy mound shapes represent clan symbols, Baerreis appears to argue that at some time, some tribe or tribes could possibly have possessed totemic patterns that might account for effigy mound shapes.

In an article in this journal some years ago, Heizer (1944) brought together a number of recorded instances of the transport of artifacts by migratory animals. These instances consisted entirely of cases in which a bird, a sea mammal, or a land mammal had been wounded by man and, surviving the wound, had carried part of the weapon imbedded in its flesh, to some area many miles away. The eventual killing of the animal elsewhere led to the discovery of an exotic arrowhead, spear point, or harpoon head in the old wound. The occurrence of undetected instances of this phenomenon would naturally result in the deposition of artifacts far from their native area where, on the basis of ethnographic and archaeological evidence, they would not be expected to occur.

Alaskan pottery techniques are distinguished by considerable use of a variety of organic tempering materials, in marked contrast to the rest of aboriginal North America. So pronounced a focus on the threshhold of the New World would suggest that the practice might have been borrowed from Asia. It will therefore be of interest to ascertain the status of organic tempers in northeastern Asia as compared with Alaska.